Dear Log,
«The truth is that when faced with the first really hard moral choice of their young lives, the Google boys copped out. And what makes their failure dismaying is that for a few halcyon years after the foundation of their company in 1999, there was a feeling abroad that maybe this really would be a different kind of venture - one more in tune with the original libertarian ethos of the net. Now it looks as though the cynics were right all along: in the end, money talks, and it says that principles are expensive.Google needs to just plain stop collaborating with the goonsquads, Chinese or otherwise.
Google's capitulation to the Chinese regime prompts some sobering thoughts. One is that while one may occasionally be justified in trusting an individual, one can never, ever place the same kind of trust in a company. That's why all the current concern about 'corporate social responsibility' is ultimately just eyewash. In the end, if there is a conflict between doing what is ethically right and what is commercially important, shareholder-driven enterprises will always choose the latter. They may do so gleefully (Microsoft, Halliburton), or in a mournful this-hurts-us-as-much-as-it-offends-you spirit (Google), but they will do it.»--"Google's founding principles fall at great firewall of China"
